Brown Baggin' It!

[Luckybustert]

It costs approximately $7 a day to eat lunch at the cafeteria in my workplace. $7 a day! That's $35 per week x 50 weeks per year = $1,750 per year just for lunch!! There's a huge opportunity for savings there and, since cafeteria fare isn't always the most healthy, some health benefits to be had by packing and carrying our own homemade lunches to work. Is this a way you're saving money? What's in YOUR lunchbox??

[frugalfranny]

I always took my lunch.

I didn't like going out to eat, not only cause of the expense, but you had to 'gobble' your food so you could get back to work on time.

[mauimagic]

Leftovers are always a good bet for me.
I'll make tuna salad - or large green salads.
Sometimes I have a streak of raw veggies and or fruits.

Our school lunches for adults are $4.50 - not great food, not balanced, too heavy on the carbs and the portions are small. Just don't want to spend money on food that I wouldn't eat for free!!

[daughter of pearl]

I always take lunch, but I am a grazer, so I take baggies containing veggie sticks, cubes of cheese, crackers, usually a hm muffin and maybe a banana, and just eat sporadically through the day. On days when I am getting home late or have to stop and do errands on the way home, I will pack a little extra so I am not tempted to grab some kind of fast food on the way home.

If I am having the kind of day where I need to get away from the office, I will eat at my desk, and then go for a coffee...$1.25 versus the cost of lunch.

[Grainlady]

You are spending about as much on lunch each week as I spend on groceries for the week for two adults (which covers 3-meals a day and snacks, as well as a large food storage plan)... to add a bit more perspective.

Between leftovers and freezer-preparedness, lunches are easy to cover.

Hubby takes his lunch each day (I eat at home) and it often includes leftovers, but also things I make specifically for his lunches that are kept in the freezer. He has access to a microwave, so that increases what kinds of foods be cause he can reheat things.

--We generally have a homemade pizza or a big dinner salad on Sunday night, so he takes those in his lunch on Monday.

--I stock the freezer with Ham Buns, which are large homemade dinner rolls with sliced ham on them. He nukes them in a paper towel to warm them.

--I also stock the freezer with small homemade burger buns and small containers of Sloppy Joes or BBQ Beef that he can heat and eat.

--On Wednesday, when we have stir-fry, I cook extra strips of beef, pork, or chicken and he will top a salad with it on Thursday. I also make wraps with homemade tortillas or pitas with the leftover stir-fry meat.

--A small container of chili (found in the freezer in single-servings) quickly turns into a taco salad (similar to Wendy's, but for a fraction of the price).

--Another hubby-lunch-treat is a plate of nachos made with homemade baked tortillas and shredded cheddar cheese (nuked), and topped with any number of things.

--Leftover BBQ (chicken, steak, hot dogs and hamburgers) is quickly converted to lunches. There are always homemade hot dog and hamburger buns in the freezer.

--Tortilla Roll-ups

--There's always soup in the freezer in single servings. Navy bean soup with a piece of cornbread (also found in the freezer) is a Vegetarian Friday favorite, when we go meatless for the day to save on the most expensive food item - meat. Hubby also likes to heat up a Bean Burger (there's a stack of them in the freezer) and put it on a homemade burger bun on Friday. A peanut butter sandwich is also often found in the lunch box on Vegetarian Friday. Homemade vanilla yogurt topped with homemade granola and fresh fruit is another Friday meatless lunch.

[beks37]

I generally eat leftovers...today I'm having leftover Beef Taco Skillet from last Thursday. I usually take an applesauce or a fruit cup and drink water.

There are days that I don't have any leftovers, so I make sure I keep a couple of frozen dinners in the freezer for those days. Generally that only happens once every couple of weeks.

[druthb00]

When I worked I always packed lunches for both BF and I, but like someone else mentioned, I am a grazer. I usually took cheese cubes, triscuits, nuts, carrot sticks, olives, apples or peaches and ate throughout the day. BF still takes his lunch to work and it varries between ham & cheese sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, PB&J or honey sandwiches, and pre-cooked hamburgers (with pickles and cheese) I have stacked in the freezer. He also takes chips and a yogurt cup. I can't bring myself to take his precious Lays chips from him LOL. He's already been switched from whole milk to 1% when we moved in together and since moving to Florida we have incorporated about 4 meatless dinners per week. He is/was a major carnivore, so this is pretty impressive to me

[Palooka]

If I don't pack dh lunch he will easily spend up to twelve bucks a day between fast food, candy bars, and pop.

I know he is going to buy pop so it's cheaper for me to buy a twelve pack then his pop machine at work.

It's anything from leftovers to sandwiches, burritos, some frozen food dinners and even canned ravioli from Aldi with some fruit.